Natural Buildings for Urban Living – The Tour (part 2)

November 20, 2013

The Craftsman-style bungalow looks normal on the outside, but the surprise is on the inside: straw bales inside the framing provide super insulation. Natural builder Lydia Doleman designed this 800-square-foot small-footprint house to last centuries, with its metal roof and strong foundation. She used reclaimed lumber and recycled materials extensively. Hot water pipes warm the earthen floors and replace energy-intensive concrete. Day-to-day usage is low impact: composting toilet, vegetative roof and rainwater catchment, LED lighting, and solar hot water. Episode 247. [theflyinghammer.com]

Janaia Donaldson

Janaia Donaldson is the host and producer of Peak Moment TV conversations showcasing grass roots entrepreneurs pioneering locally reliant, resilient communities during these challenging times of energy and resource decline, ecological limits, and economic turbulence. We tour North America in our mobile studio, taping on location. Peak Moment Conversations are online at www.peakmoment.tv/conversations. Produced bi-weekly, there are over 200 half hour programs as of 2012.


Tags: Buildings, Cohousing, Housing, strawbale building

Comments

Welcome to the new Resillience commenting system!

We have moved from the former Disqus commenting system to a new system as of September 10, 2026.

  • Your past comments have not disappeared.
  • You can log in with your old Disqus credentials, as well as Gmail credentials or a Resilience account (formerly Resilience+). Login with Facebook and other credentials is coming soon.

We made this change because of privacy concerns regarding Disqus. It's also part of a set of changes to bring more services to the Resilience community under a single login: commenting, (coming September 2026), and online courses (coming 2027). Unfortunately, your old Disqus comments may not reliably link to your account in this new system. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted